Shelter Animals Deserve Care Too… And They Get It Posted: 02/21/18 1:37 PM by Shelly Simmons

Rosco, like many animals at our shelter, is a survivor. He had extensive wounds to the left side of his face when he was brought to Animal Care. Despite his very painful injuries, this amazing dog greeted our medical staff wagging his tail and eagerly welcomed our gentle hands to pet him. I don’t think we ever get used to how remarkable it is when an a ...

I moved from Ohio to Greenville County in 2007. Before I moved, I worked at an animal shelter that took in about 4,000 animals each year and I always felt that our shelter was flooded with incoming animals, there were never enough families coming in for their lost pets, not enough people in the community adopting, and not near enough low-cost spay-neuter options around to tackle the problem. When I toured Greenville County’s animal shelter for the first time, saw all of the cages and kennels full of dogs and cats, and talked with the staff about the number of animals entering through the doors of this shelter, I was speechless.

20,000 lost and homeless animals were coming through these doors. 20,000! Before I worked at an animal shelter, I would never be able to visualize what 20,000 dogs and cats looked like, so I’m going to imagine that many of you reading this also cannot visualize this. This is what 20,000 animals looks like (with each dot representing one animal):

One of the biggest hurdles to building a NO KILL community is heartworm disease. Since heartworms are spread by mosquitoes, it’s pretty rampant in the Southeast! 25% of dogs entering our shelter are infected with heartworms. It’s easy to see, we can never be a NO KILL shelter without addressing how we save these dogs and get them adopted. It is a big undertaking not just because it is so common, but because it is so deadly, so expensive, and so time consuming to treat! The treatment for a 50lb dog even at our cost is about $565 and takes a minimum of 3 months to complete when following the American ...

Let me tell you two sad stories. I am not relaying these stories because I want our readers to be sad, though. I am sharing them so that our readers will better understand what it is we do at Animal Care to help animals and people, and the challenges we face as we try to build a no-kill community. Once I tell you about them, I’m hoping that I can get your help sharing these stories and the important message that goes along with them to your friends, family, co-workers, and others.

On Tuesday, April 25, 2017, a silver-colored mixed breed puppy came into the shelter with an injury. The puppy had a stick ...